Nanhi kali sone chali

What does one do when one wants to sleep but the sleep would not come ? Count sheep ? That does not work with kids. Ask them to finish their home work? It may work, but long term outcome may lead to more sleeplessness. And what about small kids, who have not yet begun going to school, or who in fact have yet to even talk ?

Small kids who can understand talk can be told bedtime stories, but the smallest kids know only one way to go to sleep- viz lori. If moms are into Bollywood music, then they have quite a few immortal lories to choose from.
One such lori is “Nanni kali sone chali” from Sujata (1959). There are quite a few memorable lories in Bolywood movies, and it is right up there with the best of them.

The popularity of this lori lies in the fact that the voice of Geeta Dutt is so soothing that any baby would be very comfortable listening to it. The words are simple and comforting, which shows the genius of Majrooh, who , we all know could write superb lyrics on any topic. And the music director, the great Sachin Dev Burman has very intelligently let the music be almost negligible. After all, the purpose of a lori is to put babies to sleep, not to wake them up by an impressive orchestra accompanying the vocal.

This lori does everything so correctly. Little wonder, it has been a perennial favourite of moms for the last half a century. Chances are, the lori singing mom mayherself have been brought up listening to this lori by her mom. It is indeed an evergreen and immortal lullaby.

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17 Responses to "Nanhi kali sone chali"

Thank you Atul. Beautifully done.
I think my earliest memory of music is this song which my mother and aunt used to sing to me and that is why it is an eternal favourite and means a lot to me.
It’s such a simple song but Geeta Dutt made it something special with that lovely voice and SD Burman was a genius. Hats off to the three artists – Geeta Dutt, Majrooh and S D Burman who were involved in creating this beautiful piece of music.

What a beautiful song! I used to sing this song to my children when they were little and they still remember this song, or at least they say they do! Geeta Dutt’s voice is like silk, it just flows so softly. It was good to see the scene because it makes the experience even more meaningful.

[…] instance, this movie has one of most well known luallabies of all time, viz. Nanhi kali sone chali hawa dheere aana. Picturisation of this lullaby shows Sulochana singing this lullaby to babies who grow up to become […]

Hear this after a long time. S. D. Burman did well to select Geeta Dutt for this song.

In the film, Sulochna and her husband are childless and they adopt a child who belongs to the lower caste. Soon after they have a child of their own, who grows up to be Shashi Kala, who is spoilt by all in the household. The adopted child shown crying in the other room grows up to be Nutan.

Simplicity of this Lori, the softness of lyric, the velvet voice and the soothing music has made it all time great. Just listen it calmly and most often than not you will be tempted to go to sleep irrespective of your age/work.